


i was in the forest looking to see the trees (but none were there)

by OhHiImSociallyAwkward



Series: no place like home [2]
Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: "aight nether lore lets go", 1.16 The Nether Update (Minecraft), Abandonment, Arsonist Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Child Abandonment, Demon Darryl Noveschosch, Demon Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Demons, Enderman, Fighting, Gen, How Do I Tag, I guess???, Minecraft, Oh almost forgot, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Piglin Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Pre-Canon, The Nether (Minecraft), and i was like, bbh doesn't show up in the first chapter himself nor is he mentioned by name BUT, bbh is sapnaps dad, but that is a big maybe, for a split second, for like a very small fraction, for some reason sapnap's name kept auto-correcting to Subpoena, he is a PIGMAN not a hybrid, hoglins, i have an idea and a small outline, i know it says demon sapnap but technically he is a half-demon, i was inspired when i read fics about tommy growing up in the nether, i will explain how the universe works in the notes, i will maybe make another chapter of this, i'll probably rewrite this one day, if you see a spelling mistake, it is majorly implied that he is sapnaps father, no beta we explode like dreams house, no you didn't ❤, piglins, sapnap is around 4 here, sapnap tries and fails to fight a hoglin, sorry anime techno but i think pig techno is cooler, technically, techno would be around 8, then those fics reignited my love for the nether, watch as i try to make nether lore make sense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-16 21:33:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29089119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OhHiImSociallyAwkward/pseuds/OhHiImSociallyAwkward
Summary: Sapnap remembers the Nether and all of its dangers.OR: Sapnap's strange relationship with the Nether and its occupants.(takes place during chapter 3 of my other fic, "it's not easy facing up, when your whole world is black", but that fic isn't necessary to read)
Relationships: Cara | CaptainPuffy & Jschlatt, Connor | ConnorEatsPants & Jschlatt, Darryl Noveschosch & Sapnap, No Romantic Relationship(s), Sapnap & Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), for a few seconds - Relationship
Series: no place like home [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2140287
Comments: 2
Kudos: 92





	i was in the forest looking to see the trees (but none were there)

**Author's Note:**

> i cant believe i finally caved and made a mcyt fanfic, what is my life.
> 
> ANYWAY! this is about 3,000 words of sapnap traveling through the nether.
> 
> some things i changed in the universe to make it more realistic (i guess??) were:
> 
> \- golden foods grow in the nether naturally because i wanted there to be another food source (golden carrots being common, golden apples and glistering melons being uncommon, and enchanted apples being very rare)  
> \- demons are found in soul sand valley biomes, where they are stuck because of curses or sinful things they did in a past life  
> \- you know how piglins (and hoglins) turn into zombified versions in the overworld? here if you do not have a soul, you either cannot pass through portals (encluding portals to the end) or you become infected (like zombie pigmen), or you just die.  
> \- demons need to have a soul to go into the overworld, which is why they make deals to take human souls  
> \- some mobs have souls which makes it possible for them to travel dimensions and stay in the Overworld

His name is Sapnap, he knows that. He knows the heat and the feeling of danger from the Nether whenever his father would take him on hunting trips to learn how to gather food. He knows the safety of their little soul soil cave that was dug under a rib cage of a long-gone beast. He knows the feeling of being watched and the sounds of Endermen when he and his father walked through the warped forest. He remembers the Piglins gaze digging into his skull when he walked through the Crimson forest while he held a golden helmet on his head to keep it from falling off because of his horns; with one hand and the other in his father’s. He knows the feeling of heat when sitting on the shoulders and holding on to the horns of his father while walking through a lake of orange. He knows the fear of losing his father who fought against Piglins, Hoglins, skeletons, and anything that would ever lay a hand on him. He knows the feeling of happiness when he watched his father push a Netherrack rock onto a group of Piglins and enjoying watching them squeal before his father picked him up and started to run away

He knows when his father tells him that if he never came back, Sapnap had to leave. Find a purple swirling portal, and jump through it. If he didn’t come back he needed to leave because he wouldn’t be safe anymore. (" _if i never come back you have to find the portal_ ”, “ _why wouldn’t you come back?_ ”, “ _It doesn’t matter, you need to listen to me._ ”, “ _how will i know if you’re gone?_ ”, “ _trust me, you’ll know._ ”)

For the first time, he finally knows the lonely feeling of waiting for his father to come back from hunting; with the soul fire being the only source of light and how he was staring at a wall of dark soil until he heard the sound of digging, except this time he didn’t hear it. He knows the feeling of dread when he waited and waited in that room until he was hungry and trying to save the little food he had left and heard no sounds except for the distant rattle of skeletons and cries of ghasts from above. He knows that his father wasn’t coming back.

Eventually, in that dark, dark room, he slowly dug his way out taking the remaining food and a half-broken golden pickaxe and dodging the arrows and swords of skeletons that really had no business being there anyway. He snuck past the sad shadows wandering the valley, he knows his father told him not to gain their attention because they wouldn’t hesitate to take something with a soul.

He walked past the blue of the warped forest and chirps of the Endermen, with his head down to keep his eyes away from purple. He kept walking until he reached the dark red of the crimson forest. He realized, as he spotted a few Piglins, that he had almost no gold on him, except for the pickaxe and golden carrots he had brought from the valley; he knew the beasts would just want the carrots for themselves, and that they could take it from him. 

He sneaked past them while keeping a lookout for other dangers, and food, around him. When he was taking a bite of a gold carrot, he heard a loud squeal before something almost knocked him on the ground, though he dodged before the beast could land a hit on him; the impact from the ground was almost enough to knock the wind out of him. 

_Almost._

He quickly caught his breath and took out the pickaxe and charged at, what he realized was a Hoglin… only to be knocked down again. This time by the full force of a headbutt from the pig. 

The next few moments he thinks are fuzzy and confusing. He doesn’t know how long he stayed on the ground or for how long it took the Hoglin to turn around and run straight for him. But, what he does know was the sound of a crossbow bolt and a squeal before a loud thud. He slowly stands up and sees the dead Hoglin before he realized a figure slightly taller than him was standing over the body. He looks very carefully into the blood-red eyes of a Piglin with full golden armor looking down at him. It took him a few seconds to realize what he was looking at, and when he did he nearly fell down again. 

He reached for the pickaxe and found that it had been kicked away. He thought this is the end, and that, he wished he’d had stayed in the soul soil room, with the soul fire, and dwindling supplies. While he was having his fit of panic, he failed to notice the blood-red eyes moving away from him and to the body of the Hoglin it had slain, he had also failed to notice how the Nether native had started cutting the skin of the Hoglin with a gold knife. He was pulled out of this panic when the Piglin threw some of the meat in front of him, he quickly picked it up and growled at the figure in front of him. The older of the two makes a sound between a laugh and a snort, before placing something on the ground and walking off with the rest of the meat.

It took a few minutes of breathing to realize that the Piglin with the blood-red eyes had dropped gold boots.

\----

The next few times he spent awake was pure agony.

After the encounter with the blood-eyed Piglin, who was strangely nice, he had mined more gold nuggets, from the walls of the Nether. With enough wood and gold, and a stolen crafting table from a group of Piglins, he was able to make a small golden knife, as the one blood-eyes had. The pickaxe he had taken from his shelter also broke, so he had made a new one out of gold. 

He walked until he saw a lavafall from the ceiling, and placed the meat he had gotten from the Hoglin near the heat ( _well, the heat that was hot enough for the meat to cook_ ) of the lava to cook. The smell of the meat reminded him of when his father would cook this exact thing, and he would remember them saying, “ _Remember, we can’t eat all of this right away we have to save it._ ”, with a soundless voice. He gets lost in the memories he will soon lose, when he hears the familiar grunts and snorts of Piglins that have no doubt smelled the meat cooking near the flowing lava.

His fight or flight activated and he ran, forgetting the meat even though he was hungry and all he had on him were a few half-eaten golden carrots. He hides behind the crimson Nylium watching helplessly as four Piglin walk into the clearing and take the food he had been cooking. He could run in and take it before they fully grab it, he knows that he is wearing gold, and he also knows that Piglins don’t really bother you if you’re wearing gold as long as you don’t do anything to make them mad; but he is too terrified to move, and he watches as they take the food that he had been gifted by one of they’re own,

He realizes _he_ wouldn’t have taken it from him, and he knows he won’t see him again.

\----

In the Nether, most beings either slept when they tired or they did not sleep at all. When the young child slept, he had dreamt of memories he could not remember, and how his father had always covered him with a cloth while he slept on the cool soul soil, which was one of the only places in the Nether that were not constantly bathed in heat, while they lay next to him.

When he awoke from his slumber, he was not covered in a cloth, he was covered in raggedy clothes that had too many rips and tears in them, he was not sleeping in the cool soil room with someone laying next to him. He was alone, in a small cave that he had dug out with his pickaxe, starring at the ceiling of the small room; listening to the echoes of Ghast cries, and quiet snorts of the mobs far away.

\----

He had been scavenging food from the forest. After almost being killed, and having what he was planning to be his main food source stolen, he realized that he needed something that wouldn’t kill him and that won’t attract Piglins unless they saw it. So he scavenged food from the bottom of the crimson trees and from an old farm he found abandoned with overgrown Netherwart and a few golden carrots left behind.

When he is sneaking past some Piglins he had tripped over a particularly sharp piece of Netherrack and had yelped pretty loudly. Loud enough to draw the eye of the Piglins he was next to. Usually, Piglins wouldn’t bother you if you were wearing gold, though these ones seemed especially ticked off, they loaded their crossbows, and he ran out of there as fast as his little legs could carry him. To run as fast as he could he had to let go of the pickaxe and drop it on the ground. He was fast but apparently not fast enough because he felt the rough hoof of a Piglin grab the back of his dark grey shirt and pull him behind a tall piece of Netherrack. He had opened his mouth to scream but before he could, he felt a weight cover his mouth, and he looked up and saw the same blood-red eyes of the same Piglin that had saved him from the Hoglin.

His eyes widened before he looked down again and heard the sounds of Piglins running past the spongy rock. He and blood-eyes sat there for a few moments as they wait for the other Piglins to walk past them again back to their little camp he had disturbed them from.

When they had walked past them again, blood-eyes had let go of him. When his feet hit the ground, he spun around and grabbed his golden knife, and pointed it at blood-eyes. The Piglin in response grabbed its own knife and pointed it at the young half-demon before looking over the Netherrack to look back at the Piglins who had taken his pickaxe and that were looking as if they were getting ready to rest.

The boy looked over the Piglin sitting across from him, and notice how it had less armor than when he last saw it. Of course, it did not have any boots on, but it had lost a helmet and a chest plate; the only piece remaining was worn out looking leggings. He figured out that the Piglins must have taken its armor, just like they took his pickaxe. A thought popped in his head, if he helped it get the armor back, it could help him get the pickaxe back, or maybe give him some more food ( _that he would be able to eat_ ).

He looked over the rock and back up at the blood-eyed Piglin, who in return looked at him with a determined look in its eyes, and nodded at it. The Piglin looked confused for a moment before returning to the problem at hand, it pointed to the other side of the Piglin camp where there was a ledge that had a couple of loose piece of Netherrack he could push to make a distraction.

This time when he snuck around the Piglins, he was sure to watch where he was going, stepping around and over the sharp rocks he could step on. He made it to the top of the small hill where the rocks were and started to push one off the ledge. When it fell he almost fell over with it, but caught himself and looked over the small cliff side when he heard the squealing of Piglins. He saw the blood-eyed Piglin fighting most of them and he rushed down to help, only when he did most of them were dead and/or dying. Blood-eyes was standing above a body, gathering materials from them and getting his armor back. The half-demon saw his pickaxe in the carnage and picked it up.

When he was looking around the carnage, he saw a piece of cloth that looked to be in better condition than the one he was wearing at that moment. He decides to take it.

He looked over at the last Piglin standing, who was putting his armor back on. The taller of the two looked back at him and sat down on the ground, away from the dead bodies, and patted a space next to him. The small demon boy walked towards him and sat down. The two sat in silence for a while before the half-demon started talking, he hadn’t said anything in a while so his voice was a bit scratchy, the Piglin’s ears perked up for a moment before settling back down.

He talked for a while, he couldn’t remember everything he talked about, but he remembered he talked about his father ( _he doesn’t remember him very well_ ) and how he taught him how to craft, and how to cook certain foods, and how to avoid certain mobs, and how he obviously wasn’t good at any of those things because he had to keep getting saved by the blood-eyed Piglin.

When he tells blood-eyes about what his father said about if he never came back Sapnap would have to live on his own and how he wishes his father was here because he would know what to do.

Blood-eyes tells him that he doesn’t need other people to make decisions for him and that he is strong enough on his own. Sapnap thinks that he’s right.

When he tells blood-eyes what his name is (“ _He always called me Sapnap,_ ”), and how he doesn’t like it because it sounds kinda weird, he asks the Piglin sitting next to him what his name is (“ _Do you have a name?_ ”). The Piglin answers in a snort and grunt. He thinks it sounds like the word “Technoblade”.

Sapnap thinks that’s a cool name.

\----

They made a small cave near the bottom of the hill where they would sleep and rest for a while. Technoblade gives him some cooked meat from a Hoglin, and some golden carrots, which he tries to refuse but decides to take with him anyway.

For the first time in what felt like forever, Sapnap feels full and happy.

He has a dreamless sleep.

\----

When Sapnap wakes up, he is alone and finds a small bag filled with cooked meat and a few carrots.

He chooses a direction he thinks is right and sticks with it

\----

He had been walking for a long time. A bit too long, without seeing any fortress or purple swirling things. He hadn’t even noticed he wasn’t watching where he was going until his feet had touched the solid texture of a rock, and he is looking at a giant lake of lava. The thing he had stepped on was a bridge over the lava. A bridge made out of a material he didn’t know, it was grey and had a rough texture when he touched it. He vaguely remembers his father telling him about it when he was barely smart enough to talk, but he can’t remember what it was called... something with a C. He decides not to get distracted by memories anymore before something bad happens again. He also decides another thing at that moment.

He decides to start walking across.

\----

He walked across the bridge for a while. The heat from the lava doesn’t bother him that much though the heat against his face is a little much. Eventually, he sees land from far away and starts running towards it, being careful not to fall off. He remembered they wou- _no, no more memories, not here._ He knows it would be bad if he fell off the bridge because he knows he can’t handle heat very well like some other beings.

He makes it to the other side, where more Netherrack awaits him. He walks farther with his gold pickaxe that **he** made and his raggy coat **he** ~~helped steal~~ stole from a few Piglins that he wears over his normal clothes. He keeps walking and finds other things, besides memories, to occupy his mind. Like fire, did you ever notice how it glowed? How it moved? He wondered how it would look like if it grew or if it was more. He wondered and wondered until he couldn’t anymore because he wasn’t looking where he was going and fell down a small hill. By doing so he dropped his pickaxe and made a lot of noise falling down the hill that was quickly becoming a very big hill.

He grabbed onto a ledge and as he was hanging there, he realizes this was the third time he had dropped his pickaxe. This was stupid, he was stupid. If he had listened to his father more maybe he could have-

He heard voices. Voices echoing off the walls and ceiling of the Nether, he couldn’t understand what they were saying just yet. He pushed himself up on the ledge to sit down on it. When he looked down the hill ( _that turned out to be more of a cliff_ ) he saw a small campsite, well, “campsite” because it looked more like a bunch of items thrown around with chests halfway open, with a few rocks that could be used to sit on.

Eventually, the voices getting louder and it was then when he realized he had not only dropped his pickaxe, but his knife too. He needed that knife back, it was **his** knife. He started to slowly climb down the cliff, before remembering he had a time limit. He started to climb down faster and dropped on the ground to get his knife when he stepped on his pickaxe and had to bite his lip to quiet the sound he would’ve made. He picked up the pickaxe and stopped to look for a second to try and see where his knife was, as there was a lot of clutter on the ground before he spotted the shine of the gold. He ran over to grab it when the voices of about three people were about to round the corner. He froze in place for a second before what happened with his food a while ago. He grabbed the knife before turning around to find a hiding spot, he saw a wagon that looked like the Warped stems in the forest when they were made into planks.

He quickly jumped into the round things in the wagon thing and put a hand over his mouth to be completely quiet, then he heard their conversation.

“We need to put this shit away,” A female voice said

“I was going to! But then you pulled me and C away from it,” A deeper voice responded.

“No, she pulled you away, J. You dragged me into it.” Another voice said, lower than the first but higher than the second.

An annoyed grunt was made by the first person he heard, “I’ll drag you both into it if you don’t hurry up and clean this mess!”, they sounded very annoyed.

Two almost inaudible grumbles were made before they lapsed into silence and the only sound he could hear was the bubbling lava near here, the shaking of the wagon when they load a box onto it, and the footsteps that were made by the people who were pulling it.

His train of thought was interrupted by the, who he assumed was the leader, yelling to the other two to get moving, and suddenly the wagon started to shake as it started moving. He didn’t know where it was going, he didn’t know where _he_ was going, all he knew is that he hoped he was going to something new.

And that was good enough for him.

**Author's Note:**

> hi!! i hope you enjoyed this, if you didnt ummm sorry. but if you did enjoy it, SMASH that like button and DONT FORGET TO HIT THAT SUBSCRIBE BUTTON AND THE BELL ok ok sorry
> 
> ANYWAY TIME TO PLUG MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDhhI1A8pTV0__gXhQzsE-Q?view_as=subscriber
> 
> i post on there sometimes with oc animatics but you dont have to watch them if you dont want to.
> 
> if you think you can help me improve this story or my writing in general, leave a comment and i'll see if i can fix it.
> 
> um ok bye


End file.
